Horror Game Designer

Chapter 211: Main Character

The thunder cut through the sky. The night enshrouded Han Hai. Anxiety spread through the east city. The dark clouds descended like they were about to smother the city.

Gao Ming and Zhang Ding stood on the roof of the Fu An supermarket chain. The surrounding empty lots were littered with old boxes. This place used to be an abandoned, small children's theme park. The rusted cars were covered with black spots. The merry-go-round swung in the rain. The fat Fa Cai leaned on one end of the see-saw. Behind it knelt the curious Zhang Fendou.

“I’m not doing my homework. Not in this life.” Zhang Fendou glanced at his dad’s belt and grumbled softly.

Standing at the edge of the roof, Zhang Ding said seriously, “Xia Yang doesn’t seem to follow your orders. He has painted all over the investigation centre. He wants to take on the investigation centre alone as if to show me up.”

“He doesn’t mean that. He is just crazy.” Gao Ming couldn’t tell Xia Yang’s thoughts. He took out the death portrait he gained from Xia Yang. “As long as we have this, the problem can be controlled.”

“Are you sure?” Zhang Ding took out two canvases from behind him. They featured buildings painted by Xia Yang using blood. No matter how the rain washed over them, the paintings didn’t fade. The left painting had the Li San Investigation Centre, and the right had the East City Investigation Centre.

There were a few legends in the two paintings--danger rating, mutation progression, shadow coverage, number of surviving players and the chance for a miracle.

“Xia Yang has concluded five standards to set up a horror game. Look at them.” Zhang Ding didn’t trust Xia Yang at all, but he had to admit that Xia Yang was very talented. He helped Gao Ming design the horror games.

The higher the danger rating, the higher the chance for the players to die; The shadow coverage represented how much of the area had been consumed by the shadow world; the mutation progression referenced the mutation level of the horror games and whether an intervention was required; Xia Yang added the last one on his own. Xia Yang was not pure evil. He had his own standard. The more dangerous and more mutated the horror game was, the greater the chance for a miracle to appear. That was Teacher Xia’s discipline. There was no absolute despair. The miracle was hidden in the deepest darkness.

Xia Yang glanced at the two paintings. At first, the standards for the two paintings were similar. However, as night descended, something happened at the east city investigation centre where Teacher Xia was. Other than the number of surviving players, the other standards had skyrocketed. Basically, two Level 3 Anomalies had occurred simultaneously inside the east city investigation centre.

“Desperation times call for desperate measures.” Gao Ming held Xia Yang’s death portrait, and suddenly, his new phone rang. Zhao Xi’s voice came through.

“Gao Ming, people are entering the Li San Shadow World. They wear the red bands. They are different from the normal investigators!”

“The security department?!” Gao Ming moved the ghosts and humans near Li San’s poverty district closer to the east city. Only a small number of the sick, old and young still remained there.

“Their target should be you! An An and I are finding a place to hide! Strange devices are attached to their bodies. They can sense An An’s presence. They seem to know about the existence of the death portraits too!” Zhao Xi carried An An and said. The headquarters knew of the death portraits earlier than Gao Ming did. They also knew how to use the death portraits. Different security departments had different specialities.

“An An is the real owner of the Fear Illness and the key to controlling it. If the investigation centre gets their hands on An An, they might do something horrible to him!” Zhao Xi was an honest man, but he was not dumb.

“Brother Zhao, get An An and the others to hide in the shadow world.” It was too late to hurry back. Gao Ming was going to force the security members to come back to the east city investigation centre. Gao Ming hung up and called an unknown number. “Xuan Wen, how is your side coming along?”

“I’ve already visited all the criminals you told me to visit. The players from Dead Water are gathering too. They are very interested in this first ‘group map’ of this horror game.” In Gao Ming’s arrangement, Xuan Wen took over Xia Yang’s original fate, controlled the Dead Water Forum and became the leader of the players. To help Xuan Wen, Gao Ming leaked the information about the supervillains to Xuan Wen so that she could use her own methods to strengthen herself.

“There’s no need to wait. We can start now!”

As Gao Ming gave the order, a giant truck lost control and rammed into the front door of the east city investigation centre. Then came the explosion. The revenge of the shadow world had officially started.

…

Han Hai University Student and part-time deliveryman Su Mo closed his delivery app. He turned his phone to silent mode. He tuned into the Dead Water Forum uncertainly again. He glanced at the game information sent by the forum admin.

The horror map that was planned at 8 pm that night, the investigation centre, was brought forward. All players could make their moves already!

“The group map is open.”

Su Mo was a normal university student. However, during one of his deliveries, he encountered an auntie with four mouths on her face. The auntie was nice, but he was still scared. When he woke up, someone put a blanket over his body. He ran home and then started to surf the internet for information. He finally found some clues in a very-hidden forum.

There were ghosts in Han Hai, but these horror stories didn’t affect normal people because of the existence of the ‘horror game players’. These players cleared the horror games and killed the ghosts to strengthen themselves. As they obtained superhuman power, they protected Han Hai.

The more Su Mo delved into this, the more shocked he was. After a long time of thinking, he decided to abandon his normal life and join the Dead Water Forum to become a horror game player!

However, he didn’t have the guts to do it alone. Therefore, this group map was the perfect chance.

Su Mo glanced at the rating the forum had given him… Strong Heart 0, Strong Body 0, Yin Soul 0, Attachment 0, Brain Power 1…

“After 20 years of mediocrity, is it finally my turn to be the main character?”